{"id":28418,"date":"2014-10-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/arrest-after-death-of-church-elder-2304\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:35:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:35:38","slug":"arrest-after-death-of-church-elder-2304","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/arrest-after-death-of-church-elder-2304\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrest after death of church elder"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/cd3e0b2a57f46f6fae2e54b3bfd4e6f1.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>A police officer who was involved in the death in police custody of church elder Hoang Van Ngai has been arrested.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the Vietnamese media, the local authorities in Dak Nong Province are conducting an investigation into possible acts of \u201cirresponsibility\u201d by the police which may have had \u201cserious consequences\u201d which contributed to the death of Hoang Van Ngai. The officer arrested, Le Manh Nam, was the Deputy Chief of Police in the town where Hoang Van Ngai died in March 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hoang Van Ngai was an elder of Bui Tre Church, which belongs to the legally recognised Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South). According to his relatives, Ngai defended the church when the authorities tried to force it to close, stood up against abuses of power and refused to pay bribes. On 15 March 2013, he and his brother Hoang Van Pa were arrested without formal documentation. Ngai\u2019s brother, who was detained in an adjacent room, heard the sound of violent beating just before his brother\u2019s limp body was removed from the cell on 17 March. Photographs of Ngai\u2019s corpse show severe bruising which was not there before he was detained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ngai\u2019s family members rejected the police\u2019s explanation that Ngai had committed suicide, and filed several complaints about his death. However, in mid-May 2013, after two months of petitioning, the authorities finallynotified the family that their investigation had confirmed the original finding of suicide by self-electrocution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CSW\u2019s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said,<b> <i>\u201cThe death of Hoang Van Ngai in police custody in March 2013 was a tragedy for his family, his church, and the community which loved and respected him. The authorities\u2019 failure to address the questions raised by Ngai\u2019s death casts serious doubt on the government\u2019s commitment to the protection of human rights in Vietnam. We hope that the arrest of this officer is a sign that the authorities are looking afresh at the case. We urge the authorities to take this opportunity to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into Ngai\u2019s death, and to hold to account those found to be responsible.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Kiri Kankhwende, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045 \/ +44 (0) 78 2332 9663, email kiri@csw.org.uk or visitwww.csw.org.uk.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.<\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A police officer who was involved in the death in police custody of church elder Hoang Van Ngai has been arrested.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":42559,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[128,136],"class_list":["post-28418","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-east-asia","regions-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39004,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28418\/revisions\/39004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28418"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=28418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}